1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locking device for a terminal, capable of preventing an unauthorized person from using the terminal without permission or stealing the terminal and, more particularly, to a grip-type locking device for a terminal, which is intended to physically and electrically lock the terminal, thus limiting arbitrary use by an unauthorized person and preventing the terminal from being stolen, and which is simple in a locking configuration, thus being inexpensive, and is also simple in a locking method, thus being convenient to use, and which is configured so that, when load caused by an external force is applied, the load is not transmitted to a first connector connected to the terminal, thus preventing the first connector and a communication port of the terminal connected to the first connector from being damaged.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, with the rapid development of electronic communication technology, a variety of terminals having various convenient functions, such as mobile phones, notebook computers, tablets, navigation systems, or PDAs, have been developed and brought to market.
In recent years, these terminals have become daily essentials. As the terminals become more advanced, they are improved in convenient functions and miniaturized, and thus the cost of such products increases.
As such, as the terminals are more advanced, miniaturized, and expensive, cases in which the terminals are used by unauthorized persons are on the increase, as is the number of burglaries in which the terminals are targeted by burglars.
Therefore, technologies for locking the terminal are proposed to limit the unauthorized use of the terminal by an unauthorized person and to prevent the terminal from being stolen.
As prior art for limiting the unauthorized use of the terminal by an unauthorized person and for preventing the terminal from being stolen, there has been proposed Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-0095267, which is entitled “Antitheft device and method through setting authorized area” (referred to cited document 1).
According to the cited document 1, an authorized area is set through a program installed in a terminal, and it is determined whether the terminal is out of the authorized area through a GPS mounted on the terminal. If the terminal is out of the authorized area, the authentication of use is requested. If a user is not a registered user, the terminal is automatically set to a locking mode to restrict the use of the terminal. Further, location information related to the terminal is sent to a user and location tracking is implemented to allow him or her to find the terminal.
As another prior art, there has been proposed Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2013-0010522, which is entitled “Authentication method for preventing smart phone from being lost and stolen” (referred to cited document 2).
According to the cited document 2, a client (application) installed in the smart phone exchanges authentication information with an authentication server during network connection to execute authentication. If authentication information informing of the loss of the smart phone is received from the authentication server, the smart phone is converted into a locking mode. In this manner, this method is intended to prevent the smart phone from being lost and stolen.
As a further prior art, there has been proposed Korean Patent No. 0820472, which is entitled “Burglary protecting apparatus for telematics terminal in vehicle” (referred to cited document 3).
According to the cited document 3, the terminal is installed in a housing mounted on the vehicle in such a way that the separation of the terminal is impossible. If the housing equipped with the terminal is separated from the vehicle, an alarm is activated, thus preventing the terminal from being stolen.
However, the above-mentioned two Laid-Open Publications are intended to restrict the use of the terminal by an unauthorized person and to enable an owner to find his or her terminal, after the terminal is stolen. Thus, they are relatively inefficient. That is, after the terminal is stolen, a thief can release the locking technology that is applied to restrict the use or to help in finding a stolen article, without great difficulty, even if it takes a relatively long time to release the locking technology.
The above-mentioned patent is problematic in that it is limited to only the terminal securely mounted on the vehicle. In contrast, most of terminals that are to be protected against the unauthorized use by an unauthorized person or theft are portable terminals, for example, a smart phone (mobile phone), a tablet, a notebook computer, etc.